In recent years, a technique for forming a thin film transistor (TFT) by using a semiconductor thin film (having a thickness of approximately several nanometers to several hundred nanometers) formed over a substrate having an insulating surface has attracted attention. Thin film transistors are applied to a wide range of electronic devices such as ICs or electro-optical devices, and prompt development of thin film transistors that are to be used as switching elements in image display devices, in particular, is being pushed. Various metal oxides are used for a variety of applications. Indium oxide is a well-known material and is used as a transparent electrode material which is necessary for liquid crystal displays and the like.
Some metal oxides have semiconductor characteristics. Examples of such metal oxides having semiconductor characteristics include tungsten oxide, tin oxide, indium oxide, and zinc oxide. Thin film transistors including such metal oxide having semiconductor characteristics in its channel formation region have been proposed (Patent Documents 1 to 4 and Non-Patent Document 1).
Examples of metal oxides include not only an oxide of a single metal element but also an oxide of a plurality of metal elements (multi-component oxides). For example, InGaO3(ZnO)m (m is a natural number) which is a homologous compound is a known material as multi-component oxides including In, Ga, and Zn (Non-Patent Documents 2 to 4).
In addition, it has been proved that an oxide semiconductor including such an In—Ga—Zn based oxide can be used as a channel layer of a thin film transistor (Patent Document 5, and Non-Patent Documents 5 and 6).